We go back into the grinder for the first week of the second term (quarter)! Read on past the break to see all the exciting stuff that happened!
Haha, sucker. Actually nothing interesting happened this week. But I made a commitment to blog every week so I'll do my best to write something fun. And if you hate this week I'm totally sorry. I'll fabricate a more interesting week next time.
Anyway, this week started off particularly boring. Monday was a teacher work day in preparation for the end of the 1st term. We spent a good portion of the day at Layton High School at a Fine Arts meeting to discuss reading and writing in the classroom. It's part of a district wide initiative to increase literacy among all students, and Fine Arts is not exempt from trying to meet these same standards -- even though our kids are reading stuff that is more difficult to read than plain old English, but I digress.
The first part was actually a lot of fun. The entire Fine Arts faculty of the Davis School District got together to discuss what they can do better. Much like the cliquey-ness that exists in the real world, Band Directors sat together, Art faculty sat together, etc. Sitting by the Band Directors was a really good idea. They hated that meeting so they were joking around and making fun of the whole thing. It was quite entertaining.
The second half was considerably less interesting. The Instrumental Directors got together to discuss specific methods for increasing literacy. This was interesting because it shows where the current state of Education is in Utah, in that they need measurable success for music programs, which is important because some day soon music programs will be on the chopping block, even more so than they are now. So it was good to see what I can start doing to prove that program creates smart kids. Even though our band program has 3 National Merit scholars and several students with at least a 32 on the ACT, but again, I digress.
After the meeting all the directors went out to lunch which was a lot of fun because it was great to see how close all of these people were, most having known each other several years. I can't wait to have that kind of collegiality with my peers and fellow directors. After lunch we went back to WXHS and input and finalized grades.
The rest of the week was pretty run of the mill, rehearse, teach, etc. The bands (all of them this time) were being extremely out of control. They could not stop talking, noodling, and our classes were just a circus every time. It was a frustrating week. The Percussion Ensemble in particular was driving me crazy. I can totally see why directors choose not to have Percussion Ensembles, because those kids are almost no better than circus animals sometimes. It was rather disheartening.
The silver lining to this week is that I got to pick a lot of Christmas music for our ensembles. And in particular, I spent a lot more time with Symphonic Band this week. Todd wants them to be my main ensemble that I rehearse, so that I can get more involved and grow more. And can I just say how hard it is to program for Percussion Ensemble?!
The big feature for this concert is that our Wind Ensemble is *probably* going to play Russian Christmas Music. It will be a huge stretch for them because of endurance concerns. It will be interesting to see if they have the maturity to pull off such an epic work of music. I do hope they can do it, as that would make my final concert with them just so memorable.
I had the awkward responsibility this week to tell the kids why they shouldn't call me by my first name. It was pretty lame that I should even have to tell them that, but High School kids are sometimes in need of that much direction. A lot of them have asked if they can call me by other nicknames that involve J or Jer, but I keep telling them the same thing every time:
My first name is Mister, and my last name is T.
These kids keep telling me that I'm going to miss them, and I have to tell them that I won't so that they are humbled, but in reality, I'm going to miss them. But this is far too early for me to get sentimental about them.
More to come next week!
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